Help Get This Family Out of Gaza

Can you be a champion for Asmaa and her relatives?

Almost every day, people contact me on Twitter, asking me to help publicize their fundraisers for Gaza. The messages are often desperate, a reflection of the toll the genocide continues to take. I cannot begin to imagine what it must feel like to flag down strangers online and plead with them to honor the idea that yours is a life worth saving.

I try to share every fundraiser that’s sent my way, but I’ve decided that I’m going to share some of them here on Discourse Blog as well. I’m not exactly sure how often this will happen, but I will attempt to make it a semi-regular thing.

Future posts will have multiple fundraisers in them. But I’m going to start with just one, because it’s closer to home for me.

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You might recall that, back in April, I asked you to contribute to a fundraiser to help my friend, journalist Mohammed Mhawish, his wife Asmaa, their child, and much of their family escape the genocide. You responded with generosity beyond my wildest dreams. Thanks to your incredible support, we were successful.

Now I am asking you to help again, because our work is unfortunately not over. While many members of Mohammed and Asmaa's family were able to leave Gaza, Asmaa's ailing father, her brother, and her brother's family are still trapped there. They are split off from the rest of their family in Egypt, and they are desperate to be reunited. So we're asking you to once again do what you can to help them.

The situation in Gaza is growing more dire by the minute. Famine is rampant, Israel's bombardment is unceasing, and even the places that people have been told would be safe, like Rafah, are being burned to the ground. Every day that Mohammed and Asmaa's family are forced to stay in Gaza is a day where they could be killed.

As Asmaa says:

"My family are enduring some of the most horrific days as the war tightens its grip on every means to sustain life. My father, 61, needs my urgent support to seek the necessary medical care that he needs to recover from his back injury, which he sustained in December from an air attack where he was sheltering with others. He hasn’t been able to access any medical assistance due to the destruction of the medical infrastructure. My brother, Yahya, a father of two, is too living off the essentials and his kids are suffering the complications of famine and widespread disease in the north of Gaza. He has lost his home and livelihood and is now taking refuge in a UNRWA-run school. 

To help my father and my brother with his family get to safety, I need your support."

As you know, it costs thousands of dollars to leave Gaza. You have proven how deeply you care about Mohammed, Asmaa, and their family. So I have two requests.

First, the basic one: to give if you can. You have shown the best of humanity. Now we are asking you to give just a little bit more. Please, if you are able, follow this link and help us save these people's lives. And if you can’t, please share this fundraiser so that someone else who can knows about it.

The second one is a little more complicated. We’re looking a few volunteers who might be able to champion Asmaa’s fundraiser. The goal would be to help promote the campaign to your networks, via social media, emails, text messages—all the ways you can think of. If you think this is something you might be interested in doing, please get in touch at jack@discourseblog.com.

This is a commitment, but there are two things to remember: first, it is a commitment that could lead to a desperately needed, tangible outcome, and second, it is a reminder that we are not helpless in the face of this genocide. There is something that each and every one of us can do to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza even a little bit.

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Thanks so much for everything you’ve done so far. This is a wonderful, caring community of people. We can get this done. And stay tuned for more fundraising info.